February 8, 2012

Sugar Prices Hit 30 Year Highs

Imperial Sugar

I spent the evening reading through the annual report and SEC filings of Imperial Sugar on the iPad listening to the river outside with the windows open. (That would be an article in and of itself - the company had a huge explosion in 2008 at one of its sugar refineries, killing several employees and injuring dozens more.  The insurance proceeds have been paid and they rebuilt a state-of-the-art facility that is just now gearing up for full production.  Yet, they are off hedge accounting, … [Read more...]

Our Value Investing Research Process for Stocks

Analyzing Sonic Restaurant Investment Reports Regarding Share Buy Backs

A week or two ago, I wrote an article called Understanding Stock Repurchase Plans for About.com, a division of The New York Times, which discussed Sonic Restaurant and the massive stock buy back program that had taken place over the past few years. In it, I walked the readers through a lot of the math and explained that I had purchased a couple hundred shares to watch and monitor the stock through one of my companies, Mount Olympus Awards, LLC.  (I've since increased it to about 500 shares … [Read more...]

Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce for Breakfast

Eggs Benedict for Breakfast

During Ashly and Ian's visit from Ohio this weekend, and as part of our weekend of gourmet dining, they made us eggs benedict with a hollandaise sauce on Saturday morning.  The nutritional sacrifice was worth it (health food, this is most certainly not but 1,000 calories was a small price to pay). The eggs benedict recipe consisted of two English muffins covered with poached eggs, Canadian bacon, and hollandaise sauce.  Frankly, I don't know the details of how they prepared it because I was … [Read more...]